This P30 application Is in response to RFA-OD-09-005. We request approximately $500,000/year for salary support and startup funds to elevate Dr. Lie Gao to a tenure track Assistant Professor in the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology (CIP) at the University of Nebraska IVIedical Center (UNMC). CIP has had a focus of cardiovascular and renal physiology for the past 40 years. Upon Dr. Irving Zucker becoming Chairman in 1989 cardiovascular physiology became even more prominent following strategic recruitments and the acquisition of a Program Project Grant to study the neural control of the circulation in chronic heart failure. The recruitment of Dr. Gao from a Research Assistant Professor, which is a special appointment at this institution to an Assistant Professor on the Tenure Track will contribute to the strategic recruitments in cardiovascular and renal physiology. Dr. Gao will bring specific expertise to our group in his ability to evaluate sympathetic function in rats and mice and his expertise at central recording in animals with heart failure. His adenoviral transfection experiments will provide important new data on the contribution of Angiotensin II receptors to the sympatho-excitatory process in heart failure. His experiments will revolve around the area of the regulation of angiotensin receptors in the autonomic regulatory areas in the brain stem and hypothalamus. He will especially focus on the Angiotensin Type 2 receptor in these studies. Currently, his work is being carried out in space and with equipment that belongs to Dr. Zucker. In order to achieve independence he will need his own space and equipment. UNMC will provide support for Dr. Gao's salary for 2 years following the completion of this P30. The Department of CIP will provide Dr. Gao with his own laboratory and office space. All the resources exist at UNMC and in CIP to maximize the likelihood of success in his research. Support for the recruitment of a tenure track faculty member, Lie Gao, M.D., Ph.D. for salary support and startup funds to elevate Dr. Lie Gao to a tenure track Assistant Professor in the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology (CIP) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).